The next bix thing?: Pierre Rolland

Pierre Rolland has given French cycling something to become excited about, after winning the young riders classification in the Tour de France, last month.

Rolland was born 10^th October 1986, to father John-Pierre and mother Chantal, in Gien, in Northern France. The only boy in his family Rolland has three older sisters; Stephanie, Françoise and Anne-Sophie.

In the Beginning

At 11-years-old, he and his family moved closer to the centre of Orleans, in 1999, which didn’t have any high level of sport, making cycling difficult for him. It wasn’t until he met, his soon to be best friend, Benjamin Gault, that he begun mountain biking. Rolland eventually moved over road cycling and, in 2004, he took 14^th at the Junior Road Cycling World Championships.

TdF: Mark Cavendish wins in crash filled Stage 5

Mark Cavendish has briefly silenced his critics after winning a hard fought final sprint on Stage 5 of the Tour de France.

Cavendish has been out of contention in the sprints so far, but he powered around the outside of the bunch to beat Philip Gilbert to the line. The gradient favoured Gilbert, who won on similar terrain a few days before, but the Manxman went the long way around to edge him out.

2011 Tour de France Teams Named, Part One

The 22 Tour de France teams have been revealed with a few big names left out of the race so here is a little background on the ones that made it in and the big favourites from the team.

Astana
The Kazak team dominated the tour with Alberto Contador taking the overall GC for the third time in his career. Alexander Vinokorov also took a stage of his own to give the team its only stage win over the three weeks. This year should be much more difficult after losing so many good riders over the winter break and Vino will be their best bet for success.